One reason I continue to stay away from social media is that I, like my children, am not immune to comparing my life against the near flawless lives that are shared online.
Comparing, especially one’s lack or weakness to another’s accomplishment or strength, is poison to the soul.
I’ve drunk too much poison, which is why I want to help my children avoid the unnecessary bitterness that too often accompanies the use of social media.
Raising children in a digital age can be complicated and challenging. As DADS we aren’t going to get it right every time. We will make mistakes.
But let us all take heart in the truth that being a good dad is about practice, not perfection.
What an incredible opportunity we have as DADS to abandon the expectation of having all the answers and instead join our children in practicing healthier boundaries with technology, learning how to build relationships, improving communication, and developing discipline and resilience.
Practice. Practice. Practice. This is what defines being a good dad.
From my home,
Matthew
Founder, DADS™— Dads Against Devices™
Our pledge.
I will lead my family — by example and instruction — to be present, build relationships, strengthen the body, and nurture the attributes of love, communication, empathy, kindness, gratitude, humility, forgiveness, critical thinking, imagination, discipline, patience, integrity, resilience, courage, wisdom, and faith. To protect my family, I will not allow social media or unlimited, unmonitored, and unrestricted access to screens, gaming, or the internet in my home, nor will I provide personal smartphones to my children until they demonstrate the maturity to use them responsibly.
Couldn't agree more. Social media is poison to our brains. I almost never use social media but I had an incident effect me quite recently. I opened Facebook for the first time in years to be able to see a post about Russel M Nelson's death and the second visible comment, without even clicking on the post, was a sarcastic comment about popularity contests within the church. Before I knew it, I had scrolled for almost 10 minutes drinking from the firehose of posts that my "friends" send out to carefully cultivate their online personas. I could rapidly feel the distortion of the online world impacting my perceptions of myself and quality of my life. Can't wait to never open Facebook again.